1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a liquid crystal display and an exposure mask for manufacturing the liquid crystal display.
2. Discussion of the Background
A liquid crystal display is a type of flat panel display that has become widely used. Liquid crystal displays may include a liquid crystal layer interposed between two display panels having field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode and a common electrode. The liquid crystal display generates an electric field in the liquid crystal layer by applying voltage to the field generating electrode. During application of the voltage, directions of liquid crystal molecules (i.e., the molecular axis alignment) of the liquid crystal layer are manipulated to control polarization of incident light, thereby displaying an image. The transmittance of the liquid crystal display may increase as the degree of control over the liquid crystal molecules' alignments within the electric field increases.
To control application of the voltage to the pixel electrodes, each pixel electrode of the liquid crystal display is connected with a switching element connected to signal lines such as a gate line and a data line. The switching element may be a 3-terminal element such as a thin film transistor, and it transfers a data voltage to the pixel electrode through an output terminal thereof.
In the liquid crystal display, the pixel electrode and the common electrode generate the electric field in the liquid crystal layer and may be provided on one display panel where the switching element is formed. The pixel electrode or the common electrode of the liquid crystal display may include a plurality of branch electrodes and may be divided into different regions in which the inclined angles of the plurality of branch electrodes are different from each other to improve the viewing angle of the liquid crystal display by diversifying the inclined directions of the liquid crystal molecules.
The above information disclosed in this section is for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention, and it may contain information not in the prior art or known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.